Google has announced several new updates to its Maps and Search functions, aimed at assisting users with their travel plans, thanks to AI.

Users in more than 40 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada will be able to access lists of suggested dining and visitation spots via Google Maps. These algorithm-generated suggestions comprise three main lists, which include a “Trending” list updated weekly featuring places currently experiencing a surge in popularity, a “Top” list of locations known for their enduring popularity, and a “Gems” list highlighting lesser-known but worthy destinations.

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— Google Maps Platform (@GMapsPlatform) March 27, 2024

In addition to this, Google Maps will feature curated recommendation lists from top sources including Lonely Planet, The New York Times, The Infatuation, and OpenTable. At the same time, Google Maps on Android and iOS is introducing enhanced customization features for creating personal lists.

For the first time, users can rearrange the order of places within these lists and link to relevant posts on their social media channels. These customizable, shareable lists are useful for trip planning, keeping track of favorite locations, and more.

In the upcoming months, they will begin showcasing some of the best lists from the Maps community. Therefore, if someone has created a list they believe others will appreciate, they can nominate it by sending it to listnominations@google.com.

Google will also be updating its design, giving Maps a new look, including a cleaner home screen with fewer tabs, and new pin colors that make it easier to find places on the map. The tech giant also states that it is using AI to generate intelligent summaries of locations in Google Maps, such as reviews and user-uploaded photos. It will also be employing AI to enhance photos of food with details, including the specific name of the dish.

Google’s push for more AI

In October 2023, the California-based company announced Immersive View for cycling, driving, and walking routes, offering detailed previews of journeys powered by Google’s AI. Users can view photorealistic 3D simulations of their whole route, helping them prepare for each turn and avoid issues like heavy traffic.

The feature also integrates AI-based analyses for weather and traffic forecasts. Immersive View, which initially launched in July 2023 for places, was extended to routes in cities globally. The expansion shows routes in 3D, as well as augmented reality search capabilities and information on electric vehicle charging.

Featured image: Canva

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Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, is set to be rolled out to all premium X users starting from the end of this week.

Musk himself took to the social media platform on Tuesday (Mar. 26) to share the news, with the AI tool only previously being accessible to Premium+ subscribers who pay $168 per year for the social network.

Later this week, Grok will be enabled for all premium subscribers (not just premium+) https://t.co/4u9lbLwe23

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2024

Users can ask the chatbot any burning questions or queries and the answer can be directly posted onto X. An instructional video has been shared to give insight into how this will work and look alongside the Tesla-owner’s announcement post.

This news comes amidst an escalating rivalry with OpenAI and an ongoing lawsuit. Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, as well as others, accusing them of violating contractual commitments established during the company’s inception in 2015.

The entrepreneur helped to co-found the ChatGPT parent company but left in 2018 citing a conflict of interest with the AI in his business.

Now, his attention has turned to his startup xAI which has since developed the Grok software.

What is Grok AI?

Grok AI was introduced by Elon Musk in November 2023 and it quickly became hailed as a substitute for ChatGPT – except it’s only available via the X platform.

Unlike other artificial intelligence technology, Grok has been programmed to exhibit a politically incorrect and witty personality, drawing inspiration from conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.

It has real-time knowledge of current events too, including developments in the world of AI technology. It can craft stories, summarize website content, translate language, and research and answer questions.

Historically, it’s only been available to X subscribers on the most exclusive and expensive tier. This is described as a ‘special group’ on the app website.

It’s not yet known when Grok AI will be available to everyone, with the team focusing on development throughout.

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Newly unsealed documents from a federal court in California are accusing Meta of snooping on Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon users through their covert ‘Project Ghostbusters.’

The court released the documents on Tuesday (Mar. 26) from a class action lawsuit between consumers and Meta, revealing further insight into the technology conglomerate.

According to TechCrunch, the secret Facebook initiative was launched in 2016 and aimed to intercept and decrypt the encrypted network traffic between Snapchat’s app users and its servers.

It’s reported that the parent company of Facebook then extensively analyzed the network traffic patterns to gain an advantage over its competitors. It’s said this was able to be carried out through the VPN-like service Onavo that the Meta-based company acquired in 2013.

Onavo was eventually shut down just some years later in 2019 due to an investigation that revealed that Facebook had been secretly paying teenagers to use the software so the company could access all of their web activity.

Court documents suggest the technique was later used for the video-sharing website YouTube and online shopping site Amazon.

Facebook wanted ‘reliable analytics’ for Snapchat

Within the documents, it’s reported that emails discussing the project were also leaked. On June 9, 2016, Mark Zuckerberg is believed to have sent an email saying: “When someone asks a question about Snapchat, the answer is usually that because their traffic is encrypted we have no analytics about them.”

“Given how quickly they’re growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them. Perhaps we need to do panels or write custom software. You should figure out how to do this.”

The Onavo team is then thought to have taken on the project which allowed them “to read what would otherwise be encrypted traffic so we can measure in-app usage.”

Not all of the Facebook team was in favor of the project, including the then-head of infrastructure engineering Jay Parikh and then-head of security engineering Pedro Canahuati.

An email is included in the court documents from Canahuati who wrote: “I can’t think of a good argument for why this is okay. No security person is ever comfortable with this, no matter what consent we get from the general public.

“The general public just doesn’t know how this stuff works…”

These documents come amidst numerous legal challenges against Meta. Just this month, the U.S. appeals court rejected Meta’s bid to halt a privacy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

Featured Image: Photo by Grant S on Unsplash

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Reddit enjoyed a jump in the price of its shares on Tuesday (26 March) in the continuation of a strong launch of options on the stock.

An 11% increase and a current price of $67.5 looks set to add more than $1 billion to the market value of the social media platform, whilst it is also on track to double the $34 IPO price.

Reddit is a San Francisco-based site that combines elements of social media, message boards, and news aggregation. It was founded in June 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, who sold the platform to Condé Nast the following year. Huffman left the company in 2009 before returning as CEO in 2015.

The company is seeking a valuation of up to $6.4 billion in its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange.

Reaction to the Reddit stock price boom

Jeremy Goldman, a senior director of client briefings at Emarketer, formerly Insider Intelligence, spoke on the early trading and returns on the new stock.

“More bullish investors have bought options in Reddit, which is part of its early stock market success in its first full week of trading,” he said. 

Goldman added, “From my estimates, about 90,000 options have changed hands, possibly more.”

The options launch enticed significant bets on the stock on Monday, closing up around 30% and crowning Reddit as the top percentage gainer on the NYSE. 

If the current trajectory remains, the company is well-poised to smash through its $6.4b target and also the $10 billion valuation Reddit received in a 2021 private fundraising round. 

Lo Toney, founding managing partner of Plexo Capital and Reddit shareholder told CNBC that Reddit’s debut was “a positive sign not only for the company, but I think also the tech industry and what it might mean for future IPOs.”

“One thing we know with certainty is that there (was) a lot of investor appetite during the roadshow for Reddit, and we see that it’s continuing to hold up well.”

Toney added, “Clearly the market is signaling there’s an appetite for more companies to come to the public markets.”

Featured image: Generated by Ideogram

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It’s now easier to avoid seeing political content across Instagram and Threads thanks to the new opt-out setting.

This has been rolled out to accounts following Meta announcing the development of this feature in February via a blog post. They describe this as being an addition to their ‘existing approach’ to how they treat political content.

The feature has been added to the ‘Content preferences’ section under account settings on Instagram. Users can choose to toggle between ‘Limit political content from people you don’t follow’ and not limiting this. The default is set to the former option.

The photo-sharing app is synced to recently launched Threads so the update will apply to that platform too.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri took to Threads six weeks ago to update people on this new addition: “If you follow political accounts on Threads or Instagram, we want to avoid getting between you and their content.

“That said, we also don’t want to proactively amplify political content from accounts you don’t follow…

“Over the next few weeks we will be improving how we avoid recommending content about politics on recommendation surfaces – like Explore, Reels, and Suggested Users – across both Instagram and Threads…

“Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content, while respecting each person’s appetite for it.”

‘People want to see less politics’

This update comes after a report on the Meta Transparency Center which directly states that people “have told us they want to see less political content.”

The team at Meta says this has prompted a refinement in their approach on Facebook and then other apps too.

For Facebook, AI systems are used to consider personalized signals to understand what is meaningful for each individual user.

Meta says this is how political content is ranked within the main Facebook feed, moving away from a ranking system based on engagement signals like how likely someone is to comment on or share content.

They’ve discovered that those aren’t reliable indicators that the content is valuable to that specific person.

Featured image: Via the Instagram blog

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With the ban looming, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is trying to diversify by promoting its other social media platform named Lemon8.

According to the New York Post, the company is paying influencers to suggest the other app via TikTok.

Often described as being similar to Pinterest, Lemon8 allows users to share photos and look for inspiration from others. It’s said to be very similar to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu.

A content creator spoke exclusively to The Post saying she was offered $200 for a brand deal where she was asked to upload ‘a video that promotes Lemon8 on TikTok.’

While she didn’t take ByteDance up on the offer, other influencers are starting to speak out about the Pinterest-like platform. It’s unclear whether there’s been a move to the app organically or if these creators have been paid to post.

In March of last year, Lemon8 was in the top 10 most downloaded apps. Just a month later the app’s daily active users almost halved from 11,930 to 6,360. The current statistics have not yet been publicized.

This all comes after ongoing debate around the ban of video app TikTok, with the US House of Representatives having passed a bill on March 13 that calls for the Chinese developer to divest from the company or be banned from US app stores.

Reactions to ByteDance’s other app Lemon8 aren’t too favorable

There seems to be some confusion around the app by TikTok users as people say they’re not sure what Lemon8 actually does. In one video by user Audreygentilee she asks her audience ‘wtf is lemon8.’

@audreygentilee

im so serious what is it #lemon8

♬ original sound – audreygentile

Some social media fans don’t seem to be too convinced as yet, with one person responding to that video saying “I wanted to get it at first bc it looks cool but idek what it is and now I’ve seen it too much I will never get it.”

Another said, “i downloaded it to see as well, and there was like a list you had to do to sign up it was so confusing so i just stopped and never got an account good luck if you find out lmk.”

Featured image: Via Apple App Store

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WhatsApp is upping its game and focusing on its media sharing capabilities within the app, as updates are being tested for users.

The first to be improved is shared images which have notoriously seen a reduction in quality when sent to another user.

On Monday (Mar. 25) WhatsApp news site WABetaInfo found a new update that is being rolled out through the Google Play Beta Program which addresses this issue.

The feature focuses solely on media upload quality, with users soon able to have the option of choosing a higher grade of quality when sending over photos. This is available to some beta testers but will be accessible to more users over the coming days as part of version 2.24.7.17.

The Meta-owned company isn’t just leaving the multimedia upgrades there, as they’ve been turning its attention to videos too.

The latest iOS version that can be downloaded on the App Store is complete with a feature that has been under testing for some months now. Similar to video streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube, you can now forward and rewind videos.

Double tapping on the right or left-hand side of the screen will move the video forward or backwards by 10 seconds.

The messaging company is reportedly working on other features too including filtering group chats, and sharing status updates and favorites.

WhatsApp developing AI features

With Meta as its parent company, it’s no surprise that the app is developing artificial intelligence (AI) features. Ask Meta AI is reportedly under development as part of version 2.24.7.14.

This would allow users to enter queries into the search bar, with WhatsApp enhancing the process by suggesting some prompts along the way.

When the command or question is submitted, Meta AI will answer and initiate a conversation. This should help people with common searches and obtain information quicker than having to exit the app and visit a browsing tool.

This hasn’t yet been tested, so will need to go through a beta testing program before it’s available to everyone. There isn’t a known date for this announcement or launch.

Featured image: Photo by Mourizal Zativa on Unsplash

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Despite a litany of legal cases against him, former US President Donald Trump’s net worth is now greater than it has ever been and the businessman has earned a place as one of the 500 richest people on the planet.

What is Donald Trump’s net worth?

The incredible boost to Trump’s fortunes comes after the recently completed merger between Trump’s social media company Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and the special purpose acquisition firm Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC). The deal, completed on Monday (Mar. 25) has seen the 77-year-old’s total wealth rise to $6.5bn according to Bloomberg.

Trump owns nearly 80 million shares of the company which operates Truth Social, or around 58%, of the combined entity which will begin trading under the ticker DJT on Tuesday.

At DWAC’s closing price of $49.95 on Monday, Trump’s 58% stake is currently valued at approximately $3.9 billion on paper. This massive increase from just $22.5 million based on the last disclosure forms accounts for the bulk of the $4 billion spike in his net worth over the past few days.

The timing of the merger and the skyrocketing value of his personal fortune could not be better for Trump, who is facing a huge civil fraud penalty. Initially ordered to pay $464 million for a bond to avoid asset seizures, a New York appeals court dramatically lowered that amount to $175 million – a sum Trump claims he can cover.

However, Trump cannot immediately cash in on his new paper fortune from the TMTG merger, as his shares are locked up for roughly six months under the merger agreement terms. There are also lingering questions about the company’s financial viability, with less than $3.5 million in revenue over the first nine months of 2023 while posting a $49 million net loss during that period.

Nevertheless, Trump’s entry into the rarefied air of the world’s highest net-worth individuals represents a striking reversal from the legal and financial woes that seemed to be intensifying against him just 24 hours prior. For now, his long-held assertion that he is a billionaire is indisputable.

Trump took to his network Truth Social to celebrate the news, posting a report from Fox News with the caption, “ALWAYS ONE STEP AHEAD”.

“ALWAYS ONE STEP AHEAD” pic.twitter.com/HTV3iTSKQV

— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) March 26, 2024

Featured image: Generated by Ideogram

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Analysts have indicated the number of daily users on X is falling, more than a year after Elon Musk acquired the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Since the rebranding, there have been a lot of changes in the social network. In a move geared toward an ambition of delivering an app for everything, Musk has been instrumental in the arrival of a subscription service, including a change to the verification system. Audio calls have been introduced, whilst the Tesla billionaire’s Grok AI tool has also been made available to premium users.

NBC News outlined the findings of two research firms, as well as reports from X, on user numbers. The former presents a detailed breakdown of falling figures but the social media giant has responded in a bullish manner, suggesting that its performance stacks up.

As of February this year, X had 27 million daily active users of its mobile app in the United States, a reduction of 18% from the previous 12 months, found research from Sensor Tower, a San Francisco-based market intelligence company.

It has indicated US user numbers have been flat or falling every month since November 2022, which was also the first full month of Musk’s ownership. Over the full period of his custodianship up until February, Sensor Towers presented a drop in user levels of 23%.

Globally, the bigger picture is almost as bad with daily active users on the mobile app reducing to 174 million in February, down 15% on the year before, said Sensor Tower.

X responds to reports of falling daily user numbers

Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst at the firm provided further insight on the research report.

Conversely, rival social media platforms reported modest gains in their worldwide user bases over the same period, with Snapchat enjoying an increase of 8.8%, Instagram up 5.3%, Facebook increasing their share by 1.5% and TikTok seeing a nominal gain of 0.5%.

All of the above apps experienced drops in their US user numbers but none to the extent of the steep decline of X.

Yousef stated it had “the most material decline in active users compared to its peers,” adding “this decline in X mobile app active users may have been driven by user frustration over flagrant content, general platform technical issues, and the growing threat of short-form video platforms.”

In defense of its credentials, X published a defiant post on Monday casting doubt on the figures presented by Sensor Tower. It claimed the worldwide user base is higher than what was indicated with 250 million individuals using the service daily, across the world.

You’re absolutely right @XNews. 250 million people use X every day. 550 million people visit the global town square every month.

On average, users spend 30 minutes a day on X. https://t.co/RoEX4RzIxL pic.twitter.com/L9mkoWll44

— Data (@XData) March 18, 2024

Elon Musk had indicated in 2022 around the time of his takeover, Twitter had around 258 million “monetizable daily active users,” reflecting the company’s metric at the time.

Another important finding from Sensor Tower was that 75 of the top 100 US advertisers had departed X since October 2022, taking their spending elsewhere. Late last year, Musk told advertisers at a conference in New York to “Go f*** yourself,” amid claims of blackmail after he was caught up in a furor around antisemitism.

Image credit: Ideogram

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How to access Spotify video-based learning content

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The makers of ChatGPT, OpenAI, have announced their latest artificial intelligence engine, which is for creating videos from text prompts.

OpenAI already has Dall-E for generating static images, and now it has moved into videos to help complete its suite of AI tools for all creative purposes.

Sora AI is not yet readily available to use by the public. Still, it has been made available to a select few whose job it is to test the security and stability of AI products, also known as ‘red teamers,’ in February 2024.

But it is already causing a lot of talk on social media, with Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, demonstrating Sora’s abilities by replying to people’s prompt requests with the final product, generated by the video generator.

The early signs are that it is equally as impressive as ChatGPT and Dall-E, and it undoubtedly represents a new era of text to prompt filmmaking.

What is Sora AI?

Just as we’ve become so used to generative AI models for text and still images, such as ChatGPT, Dall-E and Google Gemini, Sora AI does the same but for videos.

The AI works in the same way as other generative AI models. It constantly learns from what it sees and consumes, and is trained to provide the most accurate and detailed response to whatever prompt it is responding to.

Sora AI is no different. If you give it a text prompt, for example, “blue boat sailing on the ocean with the sun beaming down”, you will get back a video of just that. You can be as specific or as vague as you like, but the more detail you give the AI model, the better your results will be.

Sam Altman’s Sora AI demonstrations on X in February will give you the best idea of how it works and just how accurate it is with enough detail in the text prompts.

For example, the video below is the result of the prompt, ‘A instructional cooking session for homemade gnocchi hosted by a grandmother social media influencer set in a rustic Tuscan country kitchen with cinematic lighting.’

https://t.co/rmk9zI0oqO pic.twitter.com/WanFKOzdIw

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 15, 2024

How does Sora AI work?

The technology behind Sora AI is the same as the one that lets you search for things on the internet. The more examples the AI sees, the better it will be able to spit the same thing in other images. Eventually, once an AI has seen enough of one thing, it will be able to generate its own version when prompted.

That is, of course, a very simplified way of explaining how generative AI works, but OpenAI has previously provided a more detailed explanation of how its AI model works. Sora AI is trained on publically available and licensed data to know what videos look like at a realistic level. It’s trained to know what it’s looking at and then uses that information to learn how to generate its own versions.

If you ask Sora AI to produce a video of a dog, it will generate results based on all the videos of dogs it has previously seen. It uses visual patches and building blocks to help understand what elements of the video should go where frame by frame. The more it sees and learns, the better and more accurate it becomes.

Sora’s technology is built on a diffusion model, where the AI begins with a messy response before working to improve its output through a series of feedback loops. It also uses transformer technology to use a number of data analysis methods to process vast levels of data, before learning to understand what important parts of the video to keep in, and the least important details to leave out.

What can Sora AI do?

To date, Sora AI is able to produce HD videos of up to a minute in length from text prompts. It is capable of generating ‘real world’, cartoon and CGI-style videos, but currently cannot include audio.

Sora AI can also generate videos from still images, fill in missing frames in existing videos and also stitch multiple videos together. It also has the capability of producing endless loops.

There also examples of it producing simulations of video games, such as Minecraft.

There are reportedly plans to add audio and editing tools to Sora AI, with the latter giving creators the ability to manually fix errors in the AI’s videos. Presumably, the AI will then learn from the manual fixes being made, but that is just a presumption and nothing more at this stage.

There are, however, some limitations, which can be expected. OpenAI has acknowledged these limitations, including people disappearing or transforming into other objects, as well as people moving in ways that just aren’t possible in the real world. OpenAI has confirmed they are already working on fixing these issues.

Once those issues are ironed out and Sora AI grows in sophistication and accuracy, it’s not entirely out of the question that we will be able to use it to create full-blown imaginary worlds, movies and even explore real places in the world without ever needing to visit them physically.

How can you access Sora AI?

Sora AI is not yet available to the public without an invite. Individual creators and testers are being asked to use the AI model and test it so OpenAI can act on feedback to ensure it’s ready for public release.

There is also the very important aspect of security and ethics. Generative AI models have been exploited by criminals and pranksters in the past – such as the sexually explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift  – so OpenAI is putting a lot of effort into ensuring Sora AI can only be used for good and creative purposes.

That means you will not be able to use Sora AI to generate videos that show extreme violence, sexual content, hateful imagery or celebrity likeness. OpenAI will also include metadata in Sora AI to indicate its videos were generated by AI.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, suggested Sora AI will follow the same prompt policies as Dall-E, which means it will refuse to create videos of public figures.

It’s not yet known when exactly Sora AI will be made available to the public, but Murati did hint that it could be nearer the end of 2024. Meanwhile, there are some assumptions that when it does, it will be available as a web app and will eventually include additional features akin to ChatGPT, such as custom bots.

Featured Image: OpenAI // Sora AI

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Besides all the benefits artificial intelligence offers the world – assisting with complicated tasks, streamlining work processes and helping with creative jobs – it also creates issues when people submit poorly written content using AI, and that’s where AI content detectors come in.

AI detectors aim to help the public differentiate between content created by humans and a computer.

As AI tools continue to get more advanced and more sophisticated, AI detectors need to do the same by ensuring they can accurately spot AI-generated content.

What is an AI content detector?

An AI content detector analyzes content to identify patterns in text, images or videos to decipher whether it is human or from generative AI. 

In the case of text, AI content detectors predominantly look for the repetition of certain words and phrases, a lack of depth, minimal creativity and inaccurate information.

For images and videos, they scan objects within the content to help determine their original source.

Similar to AI tools themselves, AI detectors are built on very powerful technological platforms and are designed to be just as sophisticated as the tools they’re analyzing.

The 5 best AI content detectors

There are loads of AI detectors on the market but not all are built the same and, more importantly, none are completely 100% accurate.

Furthermore, they all come with different perks, functionalities, pros, cons and price points. Some AI detectors are built for specific uses, others claim to do it all. But what are the best ones on the market right now?

We’ve listed our favorite five below…

Undetectable.ai

While some AI detectors seek to deliver an AI vs Human result when analyzing content, Undetectable.ai seeks to dig deeper into the details of the text it’s given and looks at syntax, style and structure.

It’s very easy to use. Simply paste the text you want the tool to analyze and click ‘Check for AI.’ It will then work its magic from there. It recognizes text from ChatGPT-3, GPT-4, Claude and Gemini, as well as other mainstream AI generators.

Undetectable.ai is careful not to guarantee any level of accuracy but it does claim to be the most advanced and accurate AI detection tool on the market, although third-party tests estimate around 85-95% detection rates. Moreover, it claims to be ideal for writers, bloggers and content creators.

How much does Undetectable.ai cost?

Undetectable.ai offers a freemium version that is limited to small-scale exploration. Personal plans with more flexible access to key features start at $5-a-month for 10,000 words, but with that you have to pay a year upfront.

For a monthly subscription, pricing starts at $14.99-a-month for 15,000 words.

Winston AI

Winston AI is aimed at businesses that want help detecting AI-generated content in marketing, advertising and other corporate information.

The cloud-based tool uses machine learning to help detect AI-generated content.

It is a user-friendly tool that comes with a range of key features, including file upload capabilities, OCR technology, printable PDF reports, plagiarism checks, project and document management and team management.

Users simply either paste their text or upload their file into Winston AI and the tool will then analyze the text before delivering a report to indicate whether it is AI-generated or created by a human. A neat feature is Winston color codes the full submitted text in the results into green, yellow and red depending how likely it is the content is AI-generated. Text highlighted in red means the application thinks there is a high chance it is AI-generated.

Winston AI claims to be up to 99.6% accurate, which is mightily impressive and precise. However, some third-party tests rate it closer to 85%.

How much does Winston AI cost?

Winston AI offers a variety of pricing plans that suit the needs of most users. They offer a free plan that comes with the most basic of features and an allowance of only 2,000 words, while the annual plan costs $12-per-month for 80,000 words. Monthly, you can expect to part ways with $18 for 200,000 words.

There is also an Elite plan for $49-a-month, which comes with 500,000 words of scanning allowance.

Copyleaks

Copyleaks is more sophisticated than other text-based AI detectors because it understands 30 different languages, so it’s the perfect tool for businesses with international interests. It also has the ability to analyze source code, which opens itself up to be incredibly useful for software developers.

The tool offers sentence-level analysis, which means the results you get from it will give you very precise details on which parts of your text were created by a human and which parts are AI-generated. On Copyleaks’ website, it claims users have “full transparency around the presence of AI-generated content even if the text has been interspersed with human-written content.”

Copyleaks claims to have 99.1% accuracy, but the very slight downside to using the tool is that it can be quite laggy. It does, though, detect the most popular AI models on the market, including ChatGPT and Gemini.

How much does Copyleaks cost?

Copyleaks doesn’t offer a free plan and its pricing tiers are based on credits, where 1 credit is worth 250 words. You can test it for free, though.

The cheapest monthly plan available is $10.99 for just 100 credits, but that only gets you access to Copyleaks’ AI Content Director but not their ‘award-winning’ plagiarism detector. To get access to the two, it’s $16.99 for 100 credits. Monthly plans max out at 10,000 credits, but the price skyrockets to over $900.

The cheapest annual plan for both the AI and plagiarism detectors is $13.99-a-month for 1,200 credits. For 120,000 credits, an annual plan costs just over $750-a-month.

ZeroGPT

If you’re looking for a very simple and easy-to-use AI detector, ZeroGPT offers just that. It supports various languages and has a very simple user interface that’s easy to follow and use.

Simply paste your text into ZeroGPT and it will analyze it for AI-generated content before giving you a percentage breakdown of how much of the text is written by a human and how much is AI or GPT generated.

It will highlight the areas of the text it believes are AI-generated in yellow, making it very easy for users to scan the text quickly.

ZeroGPT has API integration, which means the AI detector can be plugged into other apps or programs to detect AI-generated content in real-time, and also allows users to upload files, such as PDFs, to scan.

How much does ZeroGPT cost?

It’s free up to 15,000 characters per AI detection. If you need more than that, ZeroGPT’s Pro plan costs $7.99-a-month for 100,000 characters per AI detection and their Max plan gives you the same characters but more for the AI summarizer, AI paraphraser and AI grammar & spell check, which costs $18.99-a-month.

Crossplag

Crossplag was originally a popular plagiarism detection tool, and it still is, but it has also recently added its own AI content detector, which uses machine learning to identify whether text is AI-generated or written by a human.

Using patterns learned from human-written text, the tool is capable of recognizing when text deviates away from these patterns and will display a percentage of the chance of the text being AI-generated.

It is a remarkably quick and easy tool to use and is trained with over 1.5B parameters to give it the best possible chance of maximum accuracy.

How much does Crossplag cost?

Crossplag is free to use up to 10 credits, which is the equivalent to 1,000 words.. Beyond that, there is a Pay as you Go plan, which is 50 credits for €9.95, or there’s the ‘Bundle’ which is 1,000 credits for €149.95.

Anything beyond that and you need to contact Crossplag directly.

Featured Image: Generated by Ideogram

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Glassdoor has been providing job seekers with anonymous information about potential employers for years, but there are concerns this could soon be changing as users are required to verify their real names.

A Midwest-based software professional named Monica was one of the first to warn other users about this change via a personal blog as she urges people to “delete your Glassdoor account and data.”

She explains: “Glassdoor now requires your real name and will add it to older accounts without your consent if they learn it, and your only option is to delete your account…”

In 2021, Glassdoor acquired a professional networking app called Fishbowl which was then integrated onto the site last July. Every user signed up to the candid review platform was automatically signed up for a Fishbowl account. They require users to verify their identities which meant that Glassdoor’s terms of service had to be changed to require all users to be verified.

Currently, people’s reviews of employers remain anonymous but there are concerns around data privacy and anonymity. Monica says this change could put “people at risk with their employers.”

In a bid to learn more, Monica emailed customer support. After, she alleges that they “had updated my profile to add my real name and location, the name pulled from the email ‘From’ line I didn’t think to cloak because who does that?”

A manager within the Glassdoor content and community team emailed her back following further back-and-forth with other employees.

Monica shared their supposed response: “I stand behind the decision that your name has to be placed on your profile and it cannot be reverted or nullified/anonymized from the platform.

“I am sorry that we disagree on this issue. We treat all users equally when it comes to what is eligible to be placed on the profile and what is not, but we know that there are times our users, such as yourself, may not always agree with us.

“If you are not willing to allow your name on your profile, you will again need to complete Data erasure once you are able to. However, we cannot remove this for you or make the changes you wish to see for your name.”

Glassdoor’s data policy

The data policy at Glassdoor details the following:

“As a global company, Glassdoor is subject to a variety of privacy laws that confer a range of privacy rights upon our users. We are committed to working to support compliance with the requirements of these global privacy laws and ensuring the rights and protections they offer are available to all of our users regardless of their location. […]

“We allow you to learn about, access, and control the personal data that Glassdoor holds about you. This includes data related to your use of Glassdoor.com, Fishbowlapp.com, and our associated apps. Using the form at the bottom of this page, you can request that Glassdoor allows you to: […] Rectify your personal data. […] Delete your personal data.”

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Monzo co-founder Jonas Templestein has commenced a new journey with a fresh startup seeking to put software developers out of business.

With fundraising efforts underway and drawing support from OpenAI and Index Ventures amongst others, Nustom wants to take full advantage of artificial intelligence (AI), in return for low or no-code web development. The company has launched its website, is recruiting and has set out its vision, stating within the next decade “the majority of software will be made by people with no technical background, collaborating with an AI.”

It is presenting an end-to-end SaaS offering for “those who want software made, but don’t have experience building or running it.”

The new direction for Templestein, comes at a time when Monzo is thriving. He is joined by co-founder Oliver Beattie, formerly Monzo’s VP of architecture.

Founded in 2015, the digital bank now boasts more than nine million customers and has reached a stage where it is profitable.

The company is said to be on the cusp of selling an additional stake to one of Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds, on the back of securing a £4 billion valuation last month. The top-up to the recent funding round is expected to bring in an additional $50 million from the Singaporean entity, in exchange for the issue of new shares.

Does this mean Nustom won’t be working with software developers?

Not quite, not yet anyway.

Despite the lofty ambitions of the startup, the company will “have human engineers guarantee the quality of the software until our AI agents are reliable enough to do it without assistance.”

Maria Campbell has become the third executive at Nustom, taking up the position of COO. She joins her former colleagues and Monzo alumni, having also worked at GoCardless and banking-as-a-service fintech Griffin.

The founding team at Nustom is completed with two engineers.

Fred Jonsson is another with a background at Monzo, whilst Eugenio Marchiori is the only individual not to have such a link. He is a PhD computer scientist with over ten years of experience at Google.

Image credit: Monzo

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Action has been taken by a group of cross-party US lawmakers to introduce legislation against ByteDance which would force the company to divest its dominant social media platform TikTok or risk a ban in the United States.

The move is driven by fears over national security concerns emanating from TikTok’s Chinese ownership and its links to the Beijing government. It follows previous efforts in Congress to address perceived risks from the video-hosting app with a ruling in late 2022 banning federal employees from using the platform on government-issued devices.

Now, Mike Gallagher, Republican chair of the House of Representatives China select committee has joined with leading Democrat figure, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi to face down ByteDance.

“This is my message to TikTok, break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” Gallagher stated.

“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States.”

What is the response to the US action against TikTok?

If approved, the bill would instruct the Chinese tech giant to divest TikTok within 165 days, otherwise, action could be taken to make it unlawful for Apple, Google and other app store providers to offer it to the market.

The seriousness of the confrontation is underlined by the 170 million active users of the app in the US, but ByteDance has slammed the proposed legislation.

“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs.”

Conversely, a White House National Security Council spokesperson welcomed the bill as “an important and welcome step” commenting that the Biden administration would work together with Congress “to further strengthen this legislation and put it on the strongest possible legal footing.”

Whether anything meaningful comes to fruition in the coming weeks and months remains to be seen in what is election season in the states, and is further clouded by President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign joining TikTok last month.

Image credit: Ideogram

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Elon Musk has abruptly pulled the plug on Don Lemon’s upcoming talk show on the X platform, after a tense inaugural interview between the former CNN anchor and the billionaire.

Lemon said Musk texted him to say “contract terminated”. He then shared a post and a video on X discussing the interview and the outcome. “Elon Musk is mad at me,” he said. “His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me,” he elaborated.

Elon Musk canceled #TheDonLemonShow

Watch on YouTube and listen everywhere on Monday March 18. pic.twitter.com/AAhnvcY0ny

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 13, 2024

“Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange, and that they would learn from our conversation,” he said in the video.

Why did Elon Musk cancel the Don Lemon show on X?

Musk, who owns X, posted on the site about the decision, and the company’s official account stated: “after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.”

When pressed for a specific reason, the 52-year-old himself stated that he believed Lemon was taking the wrong approach.

“His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media’, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying. And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity. All this said, Lemon/Zucker are of course welcome to build their viewership on this platform along with everyone else,” said his post.

He clarified that Don Lemon is welcome to share and host the show on X, but there will be no commercial agreement between the entities.

is welcome to monetize on this platform, just like everyone else.

What we aren’t going to do is guarantee minimum payments to him, as he was demanding, which would be going beyond everyone else!

Unfortunately, all wants to do is rehash the dying CNN business model “but…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2024

The talk show was announced in January as part of a way to encourage advertising revenue back to X after significant ad revenue losses. The interview with Elon was intended to be the first episode of the new venture. Don Lemon has stated that the show will be available across platforms including YouTube and X on Monday, March 18, and will include the interview with Musk, despite the dissolution of the partnership.

With news that X is coming to TVs, this seems like a serious blow to Musk’s plans to expand the platform.

Featured Image: midjourney

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Spotify has announced adding full music videos to its platforms, amid a flurry of new features. The music streaming giant, however, clarified that the beta phase would only be rolled out to a handful of countries for Premium subscribers.

U.K., Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Kenya are among the markets which will get access to this new feature.

The beta version of music videos on Spotify was released on Wednesday (March 13) with a limited catalog of music videos, including hits from global artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, and Ice Spice, or local favorites like Aluna and Asake.

Listeners can head to their iOS, Android, desktop, or TV devices and select the “Switch to Video” toggle for supported music tracks. Then, the music video will start playing from the beginning within the Now Playing view.

It will also allow users to watch videos in full screen by turning their mobile device to watch in landscape mode.

In a statement posted on Spotify’s website, Vice President and Head of Music Product Charlie Hellman said: “So many times in my own experience and for countless others, music videos play a key role in hooking you: taking you from being a listener to leaning in and becoming a fan.

“They’re an important part of so many artists’ tool kits, and it’s a natural fit for them to live in the same place that more than half a billion people choose to listen to music,” he added.

It comes as Spotify revealed that it would cut 17% of its workforce in December 2023.

A potentially positive year ahead for Spotify

Despite the job losses, Spotify stock went up around 11% after the announcement. CEO Daniel Ek stated at the time, “Over the last two years, we’ve put significant emphasis on building Spotify into a truly great and sustainable business – one designed to achieve our goal of being the world’s leading audio company and one that will consistently drive profitability and growth into the future.”

It aims to cut operating costs at a time when capital costs are increasing, undoing several investments made during 2020 and 2021. Ek continued: “We now find ourselves in a very different environment. And despite our efforts to reduce costs this past year, our cost structure for where we need to be is still too big.”

Featured image: Canva

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As US lawmakers approve a bill that could see TikTok banned, China warns that such a ban would “come back to bite” America.

March 13 saw the House of Representatives voting on a bill that could result in TikTok being banned in the US within six months, unless the Chinese-owned app severs its ties with China. The US is the country with the largest TikTok audience by far as it stands, with almost 150 million users engaging with the popular social video platform – a substantial audience that the company, Bytedance, will not want to lose.

Concern around TikTok from US officials has been a long-standing issue, with fears around data protection and child safety on the app at the forefront. However, Bytedance has always defended the app’s safety regulations.

What happens next with the TikTok bill?

The bill, under the official name of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. It will now head to the Senate and, if it has enough support there, go on to President Joe Biden in the White House to sign it into law.

Before the House of Representatives vote, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin maintains that the US has “never found evidence that TikTok threatens national security.”

“This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” Mr Wang stated.

“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself.”

Ironically, as with other global social media platforms, TikTok is banned in China. Chinese users can access a similar app called Douyin, however, only available in China and subject to monitoring and censorship by the government.

Featured image: Ideogram

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Wearable ring Oura has introduced new pregnancy features in a bid to help pregnant people understand the changes their bodies go through.

It’s no secret that wearables have made health monitoring an everyday habit for many, from smart watches to smart earrings – and now it can help people stay informed throughout pregnancy too. On Tuesday, March 12, Oura Ring launched Pregnancy Insights, with data and in-app education to walk people through each trimester. It was developed by a team of scientists, led by Neta Gotlieb, PhD, women’s health product manager and clinical research scientist at Oura.

“Pregnancy is one of the most physiologically significant events in many members’ lives,” Dr. Gotlieb said. “Our goal with this feature is to equip our pregnant members to better know their bodies and take care of their health accordingly. And we’re just getting started — we’ll continue to iterate and develop this feature based on our members’ input.”

What pregnancy features does Oura Ring offer?

Oura Ring users can turn on Pregnancy Insights in the new Women’s Health settings in the menu at the top left of the home screen or opt-in after tagging a positive test in their tracking.

From then on, users can track their gestational age (meaning how far along they are in their pregnancies) and get weekly updates on physiological changes they can expect. For example, people can expect to see their resting heart rate spike after conception, and then drop off. Levels of restless sleep while pregnant can also be compared to those of other expectant people.

Pregnancy Insights also offers in-app content on topics related to bearing a child, based on population-level data and peer-reviewed research. These are general trends and user data may deviate from the patterns you see in the Pregnancy Insights content.

“Although we can characterize the physiological pattern for most pregnancies, every person and every pregnancy is unique and deviations or fluctuations are not necessarily a negative sign,” Dr. Gotlieb explains. “If you have questions about your individual pregnancy, it’s best to speak with your OB-GYN.”

Oura also states that minor fluctuations are normal and advises users to monitor long-term trends using the data provided by the wearable ring.

Featured image: Oura Ring

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